Jul 29, 2010

The installation of PPS creates a site in IIS called PPSMonitoring which include webservice and preview sub directory. Webservice is called to connect datasource, and Preview is used to deploy and preview dashboards instead of having to deploy to sharepoint every time.

if you get the following error when working in Dashboard Designer:

"Unable to connect to the specified server. Make sure the address is correct"

or:

"the requested item cannot be found. Verify that it exists and that you have access permission"

That most likely means PPS Monitoring web service is not running (due to app pool id password expired in some cases). and also make sure the specific user has the read permission to web.config and other physical files or use "pass-through" option

PSMonitoringWebService App Pool id is used for Dashboard Designer to connect the datasource. PPSMonitoringPreview App pool id is used during preview dashboard, and Sharepoint application pool id is used to connect to datasource once dashboard is deployed on sharepoint site.

Those application pool ids need to have appropriate access to data source. They also need to have permissions to PPS Monitoring system database (BPMdeveloper role), but this role is normally granted during installation/configuration except for sharepoint application pool if it is different. see this for details. In case application pool ids change, you need to manually add it to this BPMdeveloper role. Otherwise you will get "unable to connect data source" error.

Jul 9, 2010

The main idea of IIS 7 Kernel Mode Authentication is to allow HTTP.sys to handle authentication, which means the computer account running HTTP.sys (not application pool account) will be used during authentication negotiation (see this post for negotiation details). If site URL is constructed from server name, kerberos will work automatically regardless of app pool account, since Host/servername is registered when servers join domain. If site URL is not constructed from server name, negotiation will choose NTLM unless SPN is registered correctly with the server computer account. If SPN is register by mistatke with any other account, the negotiation chooses Kerberos, but authentication can never go through.

This is a huge improvment over IIS 6.0 with its infamous 401.1 deny issue when site URL is constructed from NetBIOS and IIS pool account is a domain account.

CNAME is generally considered not good for kerberos (particulary for IIS 6), since the kerberos client is not to ask SPN with CNAME. For instance, if intranet.company.com is an alias to server1.company.com, the client is going to ask KDC for http/server1.company.com, not http/intranet.company.com. This doesn't necessarily mean CNAME will break kerberos: in case of kernel mode, CNAME actually make kerberos work without the need to registering any SPN (in contrast, if it is an "A" record in DNS, SPN, http/intranet.company.com, will have to be registered to the server machine account)

Does this mean Kernel Mode is a silver bullet for kerberos? No, kernel mode won;t work for Load Balance situation with multiple WFEs: it is impossible to register the same SPN for more than 1 server machine account.

So for system designed to be multiple server farm such as SharePoint, Kernel Model has to be unchecked in order to configure Kerberos.

As best practice, for multiple server system, turning off Kernel Mode and then handling authentication the same way as IIS 6. For single server, don't truning Kernel Mode off (instead registering SPN correctly when needed to configure Kerberos). If site URL is server name, truning off Kernel Mode will result in authenticatin fail. See this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/871179 for details.

Note: even though Authentication works, it doesn't mean delegation work as well. computer account is NOT granted delegation right by default.

Even though the kernel mode in IIS as well as CNAME record in DNS make debugging kerberos very difficult, but the basic rules still stand:

if kerberos client won't be able to get the SPN either because SPN is not registered or is duplicated, the negotiation falls back to NTLM.

if Kerberos client can get the SPN, negotiation ends with Kerberos (see negotiation process here)

If the SPN is registered to a wrong account, A SPN must be registered to a correct account: either server computer account (in case of kernel mode) or application pool domain account. If it is registered to a different account, the kerberos authentication will fail, normally you get prompted indefinitely and can nerve get in.

If the SPN is registered to the right account, either server computer account (in case of kernel mode) or application pool domain account, authentication succeed then.

About Me

I am a SharePoint consultant, specializing on sharepoint security, farm architecture, search integration and customization. During spare time, I play basketball,while waiting for Heat to regain NBA Title, Redskins to win NFC East again, and Gamecocks to be convered in National TVs. Spending too much time on Captial BeltWay I only enjoy listening Leona Lewis. With my two wonderful kids, We have lots of fun together!